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LAYS OF MANY LANDS.
107



MOORISH BRIDAL SONG.


It is a custom among the Moors, that a female who dies unmarried is clothed for interment in wedding apparel, and the bridal song is sung over her remains before they are borne from her home.
See the Narrative of a Ten Years' Residence in Tripoli, by the sister-in-law of Mr. Tully.


The citron groves their fruit and flowers were strewing
Around a Moorish palace, while the sigh
Of low sweet summer-winds, the branches wooing,
With music through their shadowy bowers went by;
Music and voices, from the marble halls,

Through the leaves gleaming, and the fountain-falls.


A song of joy, a bridal song came swelling,
To blend with fragrance in those southern shades,
And told of feasts within the stately dwelling,
Bright lamps, and dancing steps, and gem-crown'd maids;
And thus it flow'd;—yet something in the lay

Belong'd to sadness, as it died away.
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